Nineteenth Century. Part 8

Description

Nineteenth Century. Part 8

There has been a movement of late years in favour of the formal garden,‡ and the study of old works on gardens naturally has a tendency to increase this. Some formal gardens have been laid out in England within this century which are equal in beauty to any older ones. Those of Penshurst in Kent, Arley in Cheshire,§ Blickling in Norfolk, and Montacute in Somerset are well-known instances, all differing in style, and by their beauty bear better testimony to the many advantages of a formal garden than any written arguments could do. The garden has always been considered as, and always must be, an adjunct of the house, and therefore must accord with it, if it is to look well. No one would put an Elizabethan garden in front of an Italian house, or vice versa, and an old-fashioned formal garden would not look well in front of a new looking suburban villa, but no hard and fast rules of style can be laid down, as the selection depends on the architecture, scenery, climate and many other things.

With the many beautiful gardens which exist throughout England there need be no plea of ignorance. Anyone laying out a garden can see examples of every style. While such places as Knole, Ham, Bromwich, Wrest, Melbourne, Haddon, and Levens, exist, there can be no lack of inspiration. This is an age of progress in Gardening, as in other arts, and if garden "design is carefully studied, and the wealth of hardy as well as tender plants made proper use of, the newest gardens of the nineteenth century might easily surpass anything that has yet been seen in England.